stops us short, his honey-colored eyes sweeping back and
forth. For one frightening second, I fear he might be lost. “Wait,” he
says, knowing something we don’t.
He stares upward, at the skeleton of a once great structure. It’s mas-
sive, taller than the highest spire of the Hall of the Sun, wider than the
great Caesar’s Square of Archeon. A tremor runs down my spine when
I realize—it’s moving. Back and forth, side to side, swaying on twisting supports already worn by centuries of neglect. As we watch, it starts
to tip, slumping slowly at first, like an old man settling into his chair.
Then faster and faster, falling above us and around us.
“Hold on to me,” Shade shouts over the din, adjusting his grip on
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us both. He wraps his arm around my shoulders, crushing me to him,
almost too tight to bear. I expect the now unpleasant sensation of jump-
ing, but it never comes. Instead, I’m greeted by a more familiar sound.
Gunfire.
Now it isn’t Shade’s ability saving my life, but his flesh. A bullet
meant for me catches him in the meat of his upper arm, while another
strafes his leg. He roars in anguish, almost falling to the cracked earth
beneath. I feel the shot through him, but I have no time for pain. More
bullets sing through the air, too fast and numerous to fight. We can only
run, fleeing both the collapsing building and the oncoming army. One
cancels out the other, with the twisted steel falling between the legion
and us. At least, that’s what should happen. Gravity and fire made the
structure fall, but the might of magnetrons stop it from shielding us.
When I look back, I can see them, with silver hair and black armor, a
dozen or so sweeping away every falling beam and steel support. I’m not
close enough to see their faces, but I know House Samos well enough.
Evangeline and Ptolemus direct their family, clearing the street so the
legion can press on. So they can finish what they started and kill us all.
If only Cal had destroyed Ptolemus in the arena; if only I had shown
Evangeline the same level of kindness she showed me. Then we might
have a chance. But our mercy has a cost, and it might be our lives.
I hold on to my brother, supporting him as best I can. Kilorn does
most of the heavy lifting. He takes the bulk of Shade’s weight, half
dragging him toward a still smoking impact crater. We gladly dive into
it, finding some refuge from the storm of bullets. But not much. Not
for long.
Kilorn pants and sweat beads on his brow. He rips off one of his
own sleeves, using it to bandage up Shade’s leg. Blood stains it quickly.
“Can you jump?”
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My brother furrows his brow, feeling not his pain but his strength. I
understand that well enough. Slowly he shakes his head, his eyes going
dark. “Not yet.”
Kilorn curses under his breath. “Then what do we do?”
It takes me a second to realize he’s asking me, and not my older
brother. Not the soldier who knows battle better than either of us.
But he’s not really asking me either. Not Mare Barrow of the Stilts,
the thief, his friend. Kilorn is looking to someone else now, to who I
became in the halls of a palace and the sands of an arena.
He’s asking the lightning girl.
“Mare, what do we do?”
“You leave me, that’s what you do!” Shade growls through clenched
teeth, answering before I can. “You run to the river, you find Farley.
I’ll jump to you as soon as I can.”
“Don’t lie to a liar,” I say, trying my best to keep from shaking.
My brother was only just returned to me, a ghost back from the dead. I
won’t let him slip away again, not for anything. “We’re getting out of
here together. All of us.”
The legion’s march rumbles the ground. One glance over the edge
of the crater tells me they’re less than a hundred yards away, advancing
fast. I can see the Silvers between the gaps in the Red line. The foot
soldiers wear the clouded gray uniforms of the army, but some have
armor, the plates chased with familiar colors. Warriors from the High
Houses. I see bits of blue, yellow, black, brown, and more. Nymphs and
telkies and silks and strongarms, the most powerful fighters the Silvers
can throw at us. They think Cal the king’s killer, me a terrorist, and
they’ll bring the whole city down to destroy us.
Cal.
Only my brother’s
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